Exploring Biodiversity: The Search for New Medicines

Summary

What medical secrets do venomous snails hold? How can listening in on bacterial conversations help develop new antibiotics? In four presentations, Dr. Bonnie L. Bassler and Dr. Baldomero M. Olivera reveal how a deeper understanding of nature and biodiversity informs their research into new medicines.

At first glance, the research of Bonnie Bassler and Baldomero “Toto” Olivera might not appear to be medical at all. Dr. Bassler works on marine bacteria that glow in the dark, while Dr. Olivera studies venomous snails that hunt by harpooning fish. Yet their findings show what science has revealed time and again—knowledge that can be used to unlock medical secrets is often hidden in unlikely places. Nature has much to teach us, as long as we know where to look and what to look for. Join us for a four-lecture series as Bonnie and Toto guide us through intriguing slices of the natural world revealing how a deeper understanding of nature and biodiversity informs their research into new medicines.

"My students were throughly engrossed and amazed to hear that the cone snail, a slow-moving critter, is actually a predator equivalent to a shark. For all of these info-bits and equally great content about drug discovery, I highly recommend the inclusion of this entertaining and informative DVD as part of a K-12 or college introductory biology curriculum."